Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal Democrats

Affordable Housing

Peter Black: I will start by concentrating on the supply side of this argument, if that is not too Thatcherite a thing to do. A number of figures have been put before us, and the figures that I have seen in the very nice thick book on housing statistics that came in the post this morning show that, between 1999 and 2006, local authorities built 195 new homes, and registered social landlords built 4,478, which is along the lines of the figures that we have already heard.

That book also tells us that 4,370 social homes were demolished or closed, meaning that, in effect, between 1999 and 2006, there was a net gain of 303 in houses for rent in the social housing sector. In that same period, as Mark pointed out, local councils sold 28,720 houses under the right to buy. These homes, of course, are not lost to the housing stock, but they are lost to the social rental sector. It makes it far more difficult to house families in need, because you do not have the turnover of homes as previously, when they were in the ownership of RSLs or local councils. I believe that that is the empirical evidence that we have been looking for to justify a suspension of the right to buy in certain circumstances.

The figures point to two specific needs. First, there is the need to build new, affordable homes. In the Welsh Liberal Democrat manifesto for the Assembly elections, we pledged an extra £150 million over four years-on top of the money in the budget, which includes the extra money that the Government put in for the social housing grant-to build those new homes. I am pleased that we will get some additional houses, but clearly we need to have that extra investment, and we need to build far more than the net gain of 303 houses for rent. We also need to use planning guidance more effectively, to ensure that new developments include affordable homes. I would point to South Shropshire District Council as a local authority that has done a good job on this-wherever a new development springs up in that district, an element is allocated as affordable housing. We should learn from that example of what can be done if planning guidance is properly used.

Kirsty Williams: Do you share my concern that, in a recent application dealt with by the Brecon Beacons National Park, despite the park policy being that any development of more than three homes should include an element of affordability, the park ignored the policy, as well as the advice of the local community council, and went ahead without any affordable element? It has now acknowledged publicly that it has done so, and has no intention of looking again at that particular development.

Peter Black: I share that concern, but wherever a local planning authority has a clear policy to include affordable housing as part of new developments, it should stick to that policy. In these circumstances, where there is such a need for affordable housing, exceptions made by planning authorities would have to be strongly justified indeed. The Assembly Government has a role in strengthening the guidance on this particular issue.

The second thing that these figures point to is the need to suspend the right to buy. I am not arguing that we have a wholesale suspension across Wales-we must be selective in how we do this. We must remember that people have been given rights in legislation under which they bought their house, and we must be careful before we take those rights away. However, we must ensure that, in areas where there is high demand, where a proper housing needs survey has been undertaken, and a robust local housing strategy is in place justifying the suspension of right to buy, we give local authorities that tool so that they can use it to help improve the situation and to help provide homes for local people.

I heard Leanne, in proposing her motion, refer to the Plaid Cymru policy of giving £5,000 to new homebuyers. I think that that is an interesting idea, but the £5,000 would be absorbed by market forces, and would therefore divert money from more direct and effective programmes. [Interruption.]

The Deputy Presiding Officer: Are you taking interventions?

Peter Black: I do not really have time to take Mark Isherwood's intervention, even with the small amount of time that is allowed for them.

If we are to have that kind of money, it would be better spent on programmes that will provide housing and enable people to find homes. One scheme that would be worth looking at is a key-workers scheme, as Alun pointed out earlier, based perhaps on the homebuy scheme, which could be expanded across the whole of Wales, including urban areas, so that it is available on the same basis as in rural areas at the moment. People could use such a scheme to get on the ladder and purchase homes.

There is a range of other measures that we could introduce, but I do not have the time to go into them now. However, what we particularly need is some stability, and some carefully crafted and targeted measures that will make a difference. We need to put extra money into this programme, and we need to ensure that, where we use that money, we use it effectively and do not fritter it away on policies such as the £5,000 grant for young people, which would mean losing money that could otherwise be spent on providing new homes for people in Wales.